I mentioned a new Islamic media company called Sacred Knowledge starting up a couple of weeks back. They announced that they would be putting online a series of lectures by Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi on the Shama’il al-Muhammadiyyah by Imam al-Tirmidhi absolutely free. Imam Tirmidhi’s book is a series of Hadiths describing the Prophet (SAWS). Muhtar Holland who is an exceptional translator of Arabic texts into English has also done a rendering of it, though I haven’t had the opportunity to buy it yet.

I have embedded the first part of the series of lectures above, so far they only have the first lecture which introduces the book itself, it is divided into two parts. I am very grateful for Sacred Knowledge for sharing this gem of work with us being explained by one of the greatest scholars living amongst us today. May Allah reward them, Sheikh Yaqoubi, and Imam Tirmidhi, and may Allah grant all of them Jannat al-Firdous. Ameen.

Who: Suhaib Webb
What: Explanation of Risalah al-Mustarshideen
Where: Online
When: Every Saturday at 5pm EST / 4pm CST starting April 4th (1.5 hours/session)
Why: Take this opportunity to grasp an understanding of purification based on the broad universal principles of Islam, ingrained within its noble texts and practiced by the early Muslims. This is your chance to, not only learn this important text, but to be the pens that translate it into your societies.

About 2 weeks ago a new company called Sacred Knowledge started up offering audio lectures for sale. The first of two products they released was a 12 CD collection of a series of talks by the eminent Syrian scholar Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi (May Allah preserve him and his family). As soon I saw the promotional material for this product, and the really low price of £29.99 I decided to order it immediately.

Having just completed CD 7, I have to recommend every Muslim to buy it and have a copy in their house. The amount of knowledge and wisdom the Sheikh dispenses is absolutely immense. At first it may seem this is just going to be lectures on the Tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis) of the 36th chapter of the Qur’an, Surah Ya-Sin (Known as the heart of the Qur’an). But the number of topics and subjects the Sheikh talks about are just mind boggling: Tafsir, Hadith, Seerah, Aqeedah, Fiqh, Shari’ah, Muslims living in the west, the list goes on.

I think this is a great thing to have for new Muslims, or Muslims just coming into their faith who want to absorb as much about their religion in as shortest time as possible (Given the whole thing runs over 10 hours, you can just imagine how much subject content there is). But this is also great for other Muslims who just want to absorb more and enlighten themselves to true knowledge. The Sheikh just gives us a taste as to why this is called ‘The Heart of the Qur’an’.

I think it should be quickly mentioned that a lot of Salafi scholars today undermine the importance of this surah by mentioning the fact that all the narrations we have from the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the importance of Surah Ya-Sin are weak, and that as a result the importance of it should just be disregarded. The Sheikh mentions the point regarding the weak narrations of the Surah, but mentions that weak hadiths about good actions can still be acted upon. This is the opinion of all the scholars of all the schools of thought. They merely differed on the extent to which weak hadiths could be accepted. (Not whether or not they could or could not be). There is an excellent forum post here that explains this issue: http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=278124&postcount=1. And for a long list of hadiths regarding the status of Surah Ya Sin, check out this article I downloaded at Sunni Path last year: Benefits of Surah Ya-Seen